Justin Abdelkader

HEY, A RED WINGS FIGHT! WOW! Image via dailyvsvids.com

Things got a bit hairy at work today, so this is late in being posted.  Oh well, it happens from time to time.  Not only that, I put the wrong date down when I originally posted this.  That has now been fixed.

So not only did the Blues lose the game to the Avs yesterday, but they lost both fights – one by an edge, the other pretty much by a tail-kicking.  First, the matchup of heavyweights – DJ King, playing in his third game of the year, got into it with David Koci.  Both threw bombs, but Koci won by a nose, bringing King’s fight record to 1-1-0 this season.  The second one wasn’t really a fight . . . Chris Stewart pretty much manhandled BJ Crombeen, who was playing his first game back from a lower body injury.  Individually, Crombeen is now tied for 9th in the NHL with 14 fights, and with the loss his season record falls to 6-6-2.  The two fights bring the Blues to 50 fights on the year, still in 5th place and now just one behind the Tampa Bay Lightning for 4th.  The two losses bring their season record to 21-16-13.  Yes, they’re slippin’!

Remember how I essentially berated the Chicago Blackhawks last week for being weak as far as fighters are concerned?  Well, they have ABSOLUTELY nothing on the Detroit Red Wings.  It’s an embarrassment to the league that the franchise that gave us Gordie Howe is so weak on the fighting front.  How weak, you ask?  They are DEAD LAST in the league in number of fights this season . . . with 16.  SIXTEEN!  That’s less than a third of the Blues’ total for the season.  PATHETIC!  Even worse – when they DO go, they don’t even do it well – 4-6-6 on the season.  Any opportunity to laugh at the Red Wings is a great feeling.  Oh, and if you haven’t figured it out . . . the Blues and Red Wings have not fought each other this year.  OF COURSE NOT!  They fear us!

So how do I preview the fighters of a team that doesn’t fight?  Well, I’ll list all of them as they only sport seven fighters – only four of which are expected to possibly suit up tonight.  One player has scrapped in nine of the 16 fights, and he’s a familiar name to the fighting circuit – winger Brad May (6’1″, 213lbs, 4-3-2).  You’ll notice that he has all 4 fight victories for the Wings this year as well.  The only other Red Wing with multiple fights is defenseman Doug Janik (6’2″, 209lbs, 0-1-1), and he is currently with Grand Rapids of the AHL along with center Justin Abdelkader (6’1″, 215lbs, 0-0-1).  Winger Patrick Eaves (6’0″, 191lbs, 0-0-1) is day-to-day with an ankle issue and is currently listed as “doubtful”.  Others with fights this year include defensemen Derek Meech (5’11″, 200lbs, 0-1-0) and Jonathan Ericsson (6’4″, 220lbs, 0-0-1) as well as veteran winger and general pain-in-the-rear Dan Cleary (6’0″, 205lbs, 0-1-0, should be given an extra loss as he fell to Sharks’ non-fighter Devin Setoguchi . . . yikes!).

With King having played last night and the way they’ve used him since being brought back from Peoria, and with the fact that the Blues played less-than-spectacularly last night, the guess is that Cam Janssen will be reinserted into the lineup tonight.  If that’s the case, Janssen and May would be an intriguing matchup.  Honestly, anything involving a fight would be intriguing against this team.

The Red Wings bring rage to my eyes.

LET’S GO BLUES!!!!!

Information obtained via the incomparable Fried Chicken’s Hockey Fights